Figure 1.--Charles Robinson did this watercolor in 1896, a year after his masterfull line drawings for Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses". This is one of the earliest color plates published in an American children's book. |
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Charles Robinson is one of those rare illustrators who master both pen and ink line drawings and water colors. Art ran in Charles Robinson's blood. His father was an early American illustrator and his granfather an engraver. Two brothers also became illustrator. His first major commission was Rober Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Veres in 1895 which included over 100 of his ornate drawings. These masterful line drawings make the first edition a masterpiece that successive editions of the book could not match. He also did many lovely water color illustrations. Robinson illustrated many volumes of fairy tales and other children's books throughout his career. Some of the wonderfull children's books he illustrated included: The Big Book of Nursery Rhymes (1903), The Sensitive Plant by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1911), and the The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde (1913).
Charles father like his son was an illustrator. Charles' grandfather was an engraver. The market for magazines and newspaperts grew substantially after the Civil war (1861-65) and many opportunities existed in the burgeoning American economy.
Charles had an older and younger brother. Both Thomas Heath Robinson and William Heath Robinson also became illustrators.
Charles Robinson was born in 1870. We have no details on his childhood, but he was raised in comfortable, but not affluent circumstance. Their father reportedly incouraged them to follow the family career.
We have no details on the clothes that Charles and his brothers wore as boys.
Charles pursued a high school education. He was then apprenticed to a printer where he worked the lithographic stones. He worked as an apprentice for 7 years. During this time he took art lessons in the evenings. His talent and studies earned him a probationary berth at the Royal Academy in 1892. Finances, however, kept him from studying at the academy. Apprentices did not earn much money and the family finances were being adversely affected by technological changes in the reproduction of images and publication. In particular the photengraving process meant that engravers and artists skilled with engraving were being replaced with artists who could now have their work accurately repoduced.
Robinsons's first major commission was Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses (1895). The book had firstvbeen published in 1885. The edition with Robinson's drawings includes more than 100 pen and ink drawings. His life-long fascination with cherubs and angels is clearly observable in the book. Robinson was given a freehand with the illustrations and his wonderful drawings are a masterpiece of playful and wiondorously imaginative pen and ink drawing. The edition proved very uccessful and went through many printings. The exposure to the public broought many new commissions for Robinson.
The demands for children's books and magazines was growing and Robinson and illustrations were needed for these books. Robinson was now a leading illustrator much in demand. Robinson did a lot of work for Golden Sunbeams beginning in 1896. He colaborated with his brothers on an edition of Andersen's Fairy Tales. Some of the earliest published color plates in children's books are in books illustrated ny Robinson, this is is in part due to the fact that his apprectenship as a printer and familiarity with lithography gave him a familiarity with the process that other illustrators and their printers lacked. Lilliput Lyrics (1899) had a beautiful color frontispiece and title page. Subsequent books include both color, black and white drawings with shading, and line drawings. Books of fairy tales were a specialty. His water colors are ceratinly some of the best apparing in early 20th century childrens books. One reviewer writes, "The watercolors are astounding. Rich, subtle, ethereal - brilliant gems of tones and textures that reward repeated viewing with surprising treasures." Some of the best can be found in: The Big Book of Nursery Rhymes (1903), The Sensitive Plant by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1911), and The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde (1913).
Robinson was taken with the idea of a "gift book." In the years leading up to World War I he produced seeral of these books annually. Some of the classics included Lullaby Land (1897), Sintram and His Companions (1900), Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1907), Grimm's Fairy Tales (1910), and The Secret
Garden (1911). He even wrote some books himself for these additions.
We can not yet fully access the clothing illutrations by Robinson. Many of his books are fairy tales obviously not set in contemporary times. The illustration seen here in figure 1 looks reasonably accurate for late 19th century clothing, especially the kneepants, and hair styles, although I'm not sure how common that color of long green stockings would have been.
We note that there is a Charles Robinson III illustrating contemprary children's books. Presumably that his the grandson of the Charles Robinson we are discussing here.
Robinson after World War I (1914-18) continued to illustrate although he was much less active. One notable work is a frontispiece to A.A. Milne's Once On A Time (1922).
Robinson began to give more attention to painting. He was elected to the Royal Institute of Painters in Water-Colours in 1932. He passed away in 1937.
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